1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a label design producing apparatus. The present invention can be applied to a label design producing apparatus that produces a label design in a given shape by combining a plurality of pieces of rectangular tape, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Design stickers cut into shapes of characters, symbols, figures or the like, for example, are widely used as signs on shop windows or as guidance signs in facilities or the like. Also, affixation of design stickers on personal belongings such as a file, for example, is often practiced.
When this type of design sticker is to be used, typically, a desired design sticker is produced by using a cutting machine described in Document 1, for example, or finished design stickers are purchased at a stationery shop or the like.
However, since a conventional cutting machine is too large and expensive, such a cutting machine can not be purchased easily, and production of stickers is difficult. Thus, there is a demand that a design sign with good visible quality is able to be produced simply and easily.
There are conventional label producing apparatuses that produce a label on which a character, symbol or a figure is printed on rectangular tape. Such label producing apparatuses can produce labels simply and easily, and they are widely used in offices and homes.
Conventionally, the labels produced by such label producing apparatuses are limited to labels with a given size in the width direction. As an example of the related art for producing a label with a width-direction size larger than that of a set tape, there is an enlargement printing technology described in Document 2, but since rectangular tape is used, there is no designability in the combined label shapes themselves.    Document 1: Cutting machine product information, “CAMM-! SERVO GX-24”, online, Roland DG Corporation, searched for on Apr. 28, 2008<URL://www.rolanddg.com/product/cutting/gx-24/gx-24.html>    Document 2: Japan Patent Office, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-52908
As mentioned above, there is a demand that a design sign with good visible quality to some extent is able to be produced simply and easily.
The conventional label producing apparatus produces a label by using rectangular tape, and a produced label also turns out to be of a rectangular shape. There is a working technology in which the label shape is rounded by cutting a corner of the label, but the designability of the label shape is limited in this case, too.